The source shared this news with one of our fellow associate editors at approximately the same time as AIA National about a year ago. My fellow editor said, “this might be really big!” Clearly he was excited.

Crowded BIM Market?

One thing that came to my mind immediately was, does the market have room for yet another BIM tool? That’s what I was wondering a year ago.

And I’m still wondering… but here we are and even SolidWorks has entered the world of AEC 3D tools. Perhaps there is more room than we imagine? But I understand that it may not be a whole new competing BIM tool in the classic sense but a tool that operates in the BIM space, complimenting other BIM tools. And that would be consistent with the structure of the BIM transformation in general.

Here We Go

So we are trying our best to secure an arrangement to learn more about this new BIM software offering that is lurking in the software labs somewhere. So here is what we currently know.

Will the new mysterious software be in the BIM space? Yes. Will the new software tool be web-based? Yes. What platforms will the new software support? All of them. Will it support iOS for tablets like the iPad for instance? Yes.

This isn’t much to chew on. We know. We don’t know for example the scale of the tool. What types of problems it addresses. Or how it might interact with other BIM tools. As you can see we don’t know much yet. But we know from the source that they believe this tool is very important and the BIM market needs it.

I hate mysteries like this. I’m dying to know what this new tool is. Hopefully, we will all find out soon enough.

iCloud

Now that we are all starting to use a plethora of digitally connected devices (many starting with the letter “i”…) it is becoming all too important for us to stay connected to our data, at all times, from any of these devices. And let’s admit it–syncing sucks!

When I face data syncing issues I think about Steve. He probably has less patience for that kind of problem than I do–and I have VERY little patience! So do I believe Jobs & Co. will be addressing this fundamental problem today? Yes.

I think the music deals are just a part of it. What Apple needs to do is  get in on the action that is happening all over out there with the Cloud. Cloud service providers are doing things that save people headaches and they are making money at it. Company’s like Dropbox, LiveDrive, Mozy, ElephantDrive, Amazon, Google, Nirvanix, Box.net, and a list of others including business-oriented providers like Mezeo, EMC Atmost Online, Amazon S3, Rackspace, Eucalptus and others.

iCloud may just start with music, movies, books and iLife suite stuff today. But even if it simply replicates MobileMe’s iDrive feature that will initiate a process towards data storage in the cloud for Apple. In about three more hours we will all know what iCloud really is!

“We believe that Apple will be the first in our sector to embrace ARM for some Macs, as early as C2H12…” (I believe you read that as second half of calendar year 2012).

“We believe that Apple is already working hard on the software to accomplish this feat within the MacBook Air line-up,” continued Reitzes. “Through its own development of ARM-based processors and ARM-based iOS software, this migration would be rather natural for Apple.”

Joshual Schnell over at Macgasm has a good post questioning the logic of such a decision and specifically mentions Autodesk in his post. Concerning the fact that many major companies have begun to adopt OS X development because Apple is on Intel he questions whether they would be willing to pursue a chip architecture change of this magnitude. He writes: “Also, what about all those giant companies (Blizzard, Autodesk) that have titles for OS X now? Are they willing to design their products around ARM?”

Given that most longtime OS X developers have just completed an extensive chip architecture transition just a few years ago (moving from PPC to Intel) we think this is a very good and reasonable question.

Blurring the edge of OS X and iOS

Apple is already starting to blur the edge between its OS X platform and the iOS platform. Multitouch is already on OS X and has been for quite some time. It will continue to morph on OS X devices. While we think Apple is literally working on OS X for ARM and while we believe there will be some mobility on there coming up, the question of whether they will fully leave Intel is truly up for grabs.

And we must remember that Intel is not sitting still. Their tri-gate process technology announced last week was impressive. Read more here.

Mac Growth

Last October after Apple’s fourth quarter results for 2010 we noted that Mac unit growth remained strong despite all of the iPad hype and growth. Mac unit shipment had essentially reached 3.9 million units prior to the big holiday season and we anticipated that the company would break the 4 million Mac units per quarter barrier this holiday. Apple did indeed do that, shipping 4.13 million Mac units, but that number fell short of the number we were hoping for.

We had anticipated that Apple would ship 4.4 million Macs this first fiscal 2011 quarter based on a 14 percent sequential growth quarter-to-quarter growth rate. The street consensus was 4.3 million Macs. The big news here is that Apple’s impressive Mac growth rate–while still very sizable–is slowing down, likely due to the rise of the iPad.

Looking on the Bright Side

While there is a definite slow-down in Mac unit growth rates the company did still ship 23 percent more Macs this quarter than it did a year ago. This compares to a 3 percent growth rate in the general PC market, according to Apple. All of this means that Apple’s Mac growth is 8x stronger than the general Windows PC industry.

Furthermore, Apple’s Asian Mac growth is extremely impressive at over 50 percent in Japan and Asia Pacific. Also, while Apple sold just shy of 1 million Macs through its own retail stores about half were sold to people who had never owned a Mac before. The percentage of people buying a Mac through other channels, including Apple online, who have never owned a Mac before is unclear to us.

The bottom line is that Apple busted the 4 million Macs per quarter barrier this quarter, signaling a future where the company will ship more than 16 million Macs per year.

Second Insight – Cash

Apple made over $6 billion in profit this past quarter and the company is now sitting on nearly $60 billion in cash and short/long term assets. This is a staggering amount of money and the best way to illustrate this is to compare it to some valuable companies.

• Adobe – market capitalization is presently at about $17.4 billion
• Autodesk – market cap is presently at about $9.5 billion
• Nvidia – market cap is presently at about $13 billion
• AMD – market cap is presently about $5.4 billion
• ARM Holdings – market cap is presently about $11 billion

All five of those companies above total less than $57 billion in market capitalization. Interestingly, they were chosen for this story because they all have something valuable to Apple’s future growth. ARM designs the main processor architecture behind Apple’s smaller devices and is the market leader. AMD and Nvidia dominate the graphics industries for computers, supercomputers and increasingly will play a role in smaller devices as well. And Autodesk and Adobe have been discussed targets for an Apple acquisition and their software assets compliment the Apple brand, story and its creative customers.

While is is unlikely Apple will ever buy any of these companies in the short term we feel it is interesting to point out their present street value compared to Apple’s available war chest in cash.

Third Insight – Cash Growth

Apple’s future growth is very much primed because of iPhone and iPad it is interesting to point out that the company is now making more than $1 billion from its iTunes Store alone, with an increasingly amount of TV and movies being a big part of the revenue picture. This means Apple is renting more than 4.5 million movies per month. And nearly three times that in TV shows. We feel there is massive upside in Apple media opportunities, and while everyone is focused on its “devices” and concentrating on competing with them the company is quietly building up momentum in media consumption markets where its primary competitors are Amazon and Netflix.

And speaking of Netflix, that company is worth $10 billion presently, an easily digestible amount given Apple’s cash horde.

And related to this insight about cash growth opportunities in media consumption is the new Mac App Store. In the conference call Tim Cook admitted that Apple’s own software does best. This is interesting because if the Mac App Store becomes as huge an opportunity as the App Store for iPad and iPhone then perhaps Apple should be developing and selling more of its own software? After all, Microsoft primarily makes its money on its Windows OS and Office franchise and the company’s margins are greater than Apple’s own. More interesting, if Apple were to acquire a significant software player, say Adobe, it could sell those design applications via the Mac App Store and eliminate the cost of selling that software the traditional way and thereby decrease costs and increase profit margins.

It will be interesting to see what Autodesk has to say in the near future about its Apple App Store experience…if it chooses to say something detailed.

On the Mac

Ralph has never minced words about not liking Apple and its leader Steve Jobs. And for that he is like many. But Ralph as of late has been riding the Mac waves quite a bit and that alone suggests things are changing. Of course some of this is because Apple dominates the IT media so heavily now that you simply cannot exist as a technology writer and not mention them. And when others like you (and no, that would not be me…) typically also resist mentioning Apple but suddenly find themselves doing so with increased velocity you simply have no choice.

So at this point in time Ralph Grabowski simply has no choice on the Mac. The Mac matters now, period and his writings are reflecting that.

Mac Hype

Some of Ralph’s fans will want to argue my view and say, no they (Apple/Mac) don’t yet truly matter. It’s still all hype! But they do if you can’t escape arguing or talking about them! And, no, this is not celebrity hype, like talking about Paris Hilton. If it is hype it’s more like Windows Vista hype. The kind of hype that lands on the ground and shakes it a good bit, the kind that very few can truly avoid the impact of.

I have another proposal for Apple if we want to contend that the Mac in CAD, or in enterprise in general, is more hype than reality…and that is its comparison to the green movement and global warming. For some, with particular political leanings, global warming and the whole sustainability movement is more hype than reality…more fad than fact.

When numbers, especially when they are small, are correlated to a change event the decision to believe they are actually responsible or indicative of the reality of that event is often highly debated and politically charged.

Take the illegal alien issue in the US. Though their numbers are still relatively small (estimated at 7-20 million) some will argue that those 6 percent illegals represent a dramatic change, while others will acknowledge while there exist a problem it isn’t significant like the other group makes it out to be. So who is right? Does dramatic growth matter when we are still talking about single digital representation or not?

Common sense and a lot of chatter with others has taught me that the answer depends entirely on what people want for themselves and want to believe. For those in the CAD industry who see the Mac as some foreigner that doesn’t speak their language that single digit and growing market percentage isn’t representative of a notable change in the IT climate but rather a temporary fad or response to hype in the marketplace.

Yes, Autodesk has produced a native version of AutoCAD for the Mac, and yes there exist at least 5000 who say they want SolidWorks on the Mac, but to so many CAD veterans in this industry–like Grabowski–how you view Apple and the Mac’s growth is entirely similar to how you view similar trends based on growing but yet still modest or even nascent numbers. In other words, you pick what you want to believe based on how it suits you.

The Mac at Grabowski

Ralph doesn’t get was is so G-r-r-eat about Macs yet! But it doesn’t matter if he gets or doesn’t get it, if he likes and champions them, or if he criticizes them until the cows come home. Like it or not Macs are here! And more and more people are preferring them, especially younger generations. Additionally, as was so convincingly described in Clayton Christensen’s best-selling book The Innovator’s Dilemma, companies that solely look to just serving the needs of their current customers risk missing macro trends that will eventually leave them out in the cold.

Like others, Grabowski is talking about the Mac a lot lately, and with increasing velocity. Back in September he wrote a post questioning where the market is for AutoCAD on the Mac. At this point he must have already been writing a book on AutoCAD for the Mac (which is on sale already) but we’ll skip past that tidbit for now. His blog post on not getting what’s so great about Macs has gotten a lot of attention for sure, both in defense of Ralph and against his opinions.

A post about the 5000 petitions for SolidWorks on the Mac was also of interest last year. His post about options and helping people do CAD on the Mac this summer was also of note. This post was titled “Experiencing CAD on the Mac.”

The bottom line is Grabowski is writing a heck of a lot about the Mac lately, and with increasing frequency and intensity. All of which, of course, is good for the Mac. I say this because Ralph Grabowski has weight in this industry. People respect his views and read his blog and site regularly. If he is giving new attention to Apple and Jobs, it means things are changing, period. Where they are changing can be debated, but I am pretty sure the trending is good for the Mac in CAD, with or without Grabowski’s platform blessings!

There is no doubting that Apple’s Mac division is being upstaged by its new era product lines (with the exception of the iPod division which is slowing down in growth) but one only needs to look at the bigger picture to see it’s all okay with Steve & Company precisely because the “halo effect” from iPhone in particular keeps pushing Mac sales up at a healthy rate. Of course that rate may be slowing as the iPad begins to both produce a “halo effect” and a “cannibal effect.” (more on that later).

So how healthy are we talking about?

Mac Unit Growth

Let’s start with the quarter to quarter sequential growth. In this quarter Apple’s Mac units grew at just over 12 percent, which is a healthy growth rate.  This was the result of shipping more than 400,000 Macs than the previous quarter. Mind you, just a few years ago 400,000 Macs per quarter was approximately one forth the amount of all Macs in that quarter.

Some Notes

Actually in the press introduction to Autodesk’s announcement of AutoCAD for Mac that very question got answered by Autodesk Senior Vice President Amar Hanspal. The answer?

According to Hanspal, Autodesk’s own customers have kept chiming in on wanting AutoCAD for Mac at an increasing rate over the past few years. Clearly such a statement by Hanspal is a testament to Apple’s popularity and growing strength in business markets. In fact, Hanspal remarks that its customers are increasingly using Mac hardware more and more in enterprise and business. The result is a company that ultimately is directly responding to its own customers.

The AutoCAD universe is a big place. Hanspal said in an interview presentation there are over 4,000 AutoCAD third-party developers and these developers can now support the Mac version because the native C++ API for AutoCAD on Windows is the same for the Mac version.

The DWG file engine in AutoCAD for the Mac is identical, literally the same as that in its Windows version. There is full, bi-directional file format fidelity so mixed PC/Mac offices can open and work on the same files.

In a product video on the AutoCAD for Mac webpage Autodesk does actually compare its product directly to a competitor. In this case, in discussing AutoCAD layers, it compares itself to Vectorworks (by Nemetschek Vectorworks) when talking about verticality in regards to layers (ie: AutoCAD does not have verticality with layers) saying Vectorworks classes are more like AutoCAD layers. The comparison seemed aimed at having Vectorworks users understand something key about the product, rather than taking a swipe at Vectorworks itself. The latter would have seemed nonsensical anyway as in many ways Vectorworks’s dual class and layer system is arguably more flexible.

Some Tech Notes

Let’s get into some technical notes here on today’s news about AutoCAD for Mac. First off, you will need a 64-bit Intel processor based Mac. Most of Apple’s machines released on or after January 1, 2009 will work. To give you a sense of what we have been running it on in the Architosh studio, we have it on an early 2009, MacBook. It features an Intel Core 2 Duo. We have not tested it hard so we cannot remark about hardware to performance issues. If you are considering AutoCAD for Mac you should visit the specification page for the product on Autodesk’s website.

A product demonstration video does mention one rival Mac CAD product, Mac industry leader Nemetschek Vectorworks.

AutoCAD for Mac is a native 64-bit application. It is also built on an Apple Cocoa foundation with a UI (user-interface) that fits the Mac’s GUI Chrome implementation. Interestingly, the UI has a two-toned approach and gives the user the option to try a dark or light interface. This doesn’t affect the Mac UI element(s) of the palettes, windows and other panels. One comment here: we think the dark interface looks pretty darn good!

This only runs on Leopard (10.5.8) or Snow Leopard version 10.6.4 or later). If you are running an older OS you need to update your system.

AutoCAD for Mac is fully compatible with AutoCAD for Windows. Drawings containing objects created in AutoCAD Architecture (Windows only) can be easily opened in AutoCAD for Mac.

For Command Line users AutoCAD for Mac has a near identical Command Line interface and nearly all commands are available for the Mac version. Autodesk makes a note that the Ribbon Bar of the latest versions of AutoCAD for Windows are not supported on the Mac version, but instead Mac users get the familiar Tool bars and properties palettes (on the right) that are common UI design features of the Mac. That is a good thing for Mac users. Users should note that Microsoft’s Ribbon UI was slammed when it came out on Revit by its users.

What is Not Working

While this version of AutoCAD for Mac is nearly identical to that found in the Windows version there are some differences and items of non-support. They include:

• Network licensing and CAD manager are not included
• No support for DCL in AutoLISP
• No access to custom AutoCAD user UI controls in ObjectARX
• Microsoft VBasic Applications and OLE objects are not be supported as they are Windows specific
• Layer Filters and Groups and States are not supported yet but will be in a future release
• Sheet Manager is not in this release either
• There is also no PDF, DGN and DWF “underlay” support but will be in a future release
• minor other items not yet supported in this release

Autodesk recommends that larger companies with enterprise use of AutoCAD may want to hold off on a Mac version adoption until their specific enterprise needs are fully confirmed to be met. Autodesk recommends that smaller and mid-size companies are more suited to AutoCAD for Mac adoption or conversion.

Finally, the version of AutoCAD for Mac can both import and export ACIS (.sat) files. Here at Architosh we like to talk about modeling and rendering kernels and engines and this is interesting to us because we have been under the assumption that Autodesk has written its own modeling kernel for AutoCAD based on Spatial’s ACIS.

A Bit of History

A bit of history is in order to set the proper mood for this post. The year was 1998. It was one of those water cooler moments. The location was the Boston architectural office of Koetter Kim & Associates. The office was completely Mac based during that time. It was in the afternoon, just after lunch hour to be precise. I was talking to a young colleague who at the time was telling me he was thinking about going back to China to practice architecture, since getting his masters at the GSD. Steve Jobs had already introduced the iMac, but despite that my colleague was telling me how much he loved the Mac but it seemed that the platform was doomed. I told him I thought the problem was that people didn’t have the information available to them to dispel the rumors and disparaging comments.

I told him I was learning how to create Web sites. He said, “you should create one about the Mac in architecture.” I said, “Yeah…maybe I can call it Macitecture or something like that.” He said, or you could call it “Archintosh.” I said, “or I could just call it Architosh,” taking out the “in” part of it. So that is how it began. The goal was simple. Tell the world that despite the gloom and doom surrounding Apple there are indeed firms and tools available serving up architectural practice on the Mac.

Just One Big Problem

Architosh was spun together in 1998 and officially launched on Feb 3, 1999. It was at first not a news site or a site with any journalistic pretenses. It was a resource. It listed software and it began to collect and list information on Mac-using firms. It was instantly popular and it spread through news on the now defunct MacEvanglista e-news list headed by famed Silicon-Valley Apple fan boy and former employee Guy Kawasaki.

Prior to the power of Google to get known fast you needed the power of an influential news e-list. Kawasaki’s list was it. And Architosh quickly become a resource of value. But there was just one problem, many people said. There is no point in fighting for the Mac in architecture without AutoCAD on the Mac. I refuted that point (more on that later).

Just One Big Problem – Part 2

Later on, several years in fact, I was talking to some Apple people who said to me that Steve himself saw little point in pushing hard on the Mac in architecture front if the world’s top software title for it was not available. While I have never been able to check the veracity of that statement, there was always something about that that fit Steve’s logic.

So here we are, more than 12 years on from that water cooler moment. And today, officially, we have AutoCAD on the Mac. A lot has changed in those twelve years. All those Apple naysers were, as it turned out, just plain wrong about Apple, Steve and the immense fortitude and determination of Mac users.

And they were also wrong about something else too. And that is, that it wasn’t worth fighting for the Mac in architecture without AutoCAD. I originally refuted that notion for the very same logic I was defending the Mac and its right to exist in the computing universe back in 1998. That logic boiled down to this: “there was simply too much creative brilliance there…”

What I meant back then by “there” was not just at Apple but at its many dedicated Mac developers around the world. Specifically, in the context of all those who are not at Autodesk, I was referring to the outstanding software achievements by firms like AutoDesSys, Ashar, Graphisoft and Nemetschek–to name just of a few of the key players who were creating and innovating with Mac CAD software.

For the same reason it made sense to bet on, root for, and champion–by way of providing a neutral resource to the world community–the value of Apple and the Mac in computing going forward in 1999, it also made sense to do the same for all those who supported the Mac in CAD prior to, during, and after its darkest days.

Therefore, while today is a big day for Apple and Autodesk and CAD uses around the world, it marks a momentous moment for everyone else who was apart of this story all along. That includes the incredibly talented software developers who served, and will continue to serve, the Mac community with innovative solutions that will compete with Autodesk’s new entrants in the market.

[Editor's Note: A sentence in the third part of this article was relocated to the end of the second part of this article. 6:12PM EST. ]

Martyn Day has published a nice look-see of Graphisoft’s new ArchiCAD 14–with plenty of cool images of the Microsoft Hungary campus building the BIM leader is using to demonstrate version 14’s features. You can check out that article here:

http://aecmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=354

It’s a good article on the new ArchiCAD 14. But right in the second paragraph Martyn does the industry a big disservice by stating an absolute falsehood about BIM adoption in AEC. He says that MEP and structural engineering firms “were quick to adopt 3D” and suggest that its the architects who are lagging in BIM adoption.

First off nobody in AEC has been quick to adopt 3D or BIM. I’m not sure what he means by 3D (if it is BIM he is referring to or not) but either of them have not been adopted quickly in AEC. That’s just false. As regards 3D, SketchUp has had more to do with accelerating 3D adoption within AEC than any other tool. Even the long-standing BIM tools.

But back to the engineers. According to the McGraw-Hill SmartMarket BIM report published late in 2009, very few MEP engineers (22%) collectively see MEP engineers reaping high value in ROI from BIM. I’m not saying this to put a damper on BIM for MEP, but rather to emphasize the importance of accuracy of information.

The reality is that structural engineers are benefiting more from BIM than many of the constituents of MEP. Electrical engineers in particular see very little value in modeling electrical items (which themselves are often very small). A similar argument can be said about plumbing. Mechanical engineers are actually lagging mechanical contractors in BIM adoption based on the McGraw-Hill report cited above. The report also notes that marketing new business to clients is the number one internal benefit of BIM for MEP engineers. Marketing! Think about that for a second. What does that imply? This is because contractors and building owners are benefiting the most from BIM adoption and many are mandating BIM. Large MEP outfits need to attain BIM skills in order to compete for work. ROI tied to productivity is getting blurred by BIM’s benefit in competing in a very tough economic environment.

Finally, the McGraw-Hill report on BIM clearly states that architects were the early adopters of BIM technology and remain the highest users of BIM. Not engineers!

This is just one example of the mis-information of BIM in the industry. Elements of the press need to be careful to make sure they are citing the correct facts. Especially facts about adoption and financial benefits. Here at Architosh we spent an enormous amount of time making sure we crafted our statements about BIM adoption in our 2010 BIM report in such a way that they were backed up by solid factual numbers; and when those numbers were not quite there or were more suggestive that we could cite credible evidence of what the numbers were suggesting.

Martyn Day’s article has the story completely backwards and it doesn’t gel with arguably the world’s best report on AEC industry-wide BIM usage data. It also doesn’t jive with our BIM report–while much smaller in scope and limited to architects did communicate clearly to us who in AEC was the farthest along in BIM. Nor does it gel with logic. The earliest BIM tools were in fact made for architects first.

If you haven’t read the McGraw-Hill SmartMarket BIM Report from late 2009 you can obtain it here. It is a very exhaustive study with quite a lot of numerical data.

“We’re working on several concepts. One of those concepts is definitely running SolidWorks as a native Mac app, in addition to the no-install (browser-based) version…So you can run it on a Mac or run on a Mac machine using a browser–take your pick.”

We are here and available to talk to SolidWorks Corporation about what their future product plans are. I guess the word “working” is the key verb in the remark by Joe Dunne of SolidWorks above. How does one work on the concept of a native Mac application? That could just involve non-programming planning. More likely however it involves software programmers digging into the technical details of making such a port over to Mac OS X feasible.

I personally had the chance to talk to a software developer last night who utilizes the Parasolid geometry modeling kernel. The same kernel behind SolidWorks. He noted that changes to that kernel that could affect his Mac application are important. Some types of key changes could very well indicate that another licensee of the kernel is at work in the Mac space. He noted that some such changes have been recognized in the recent past.

Keeping it Fair to the Community

We weren’t at SolidWorks World. We’ll take Kenneth Wong’s word that the eruption of applause concerning Jeff Ray’s comments about cloud, multi-touch and Mac futures with SolidWorks’ technology was indeed correct. The blog posts seem to back up the enthusiasm that the product design and SolidWorks community does indeed wish to see a Mac version in the future.

The way SolidWorks is handling this is consistent with what we have seen with developers in the past who were working on Mac versions of their software in secrecy and wished to “manage” that process. Of course the community loves it when companies say they will do “X” and deliver it. Their care in managing this is likely an indication of just how complex their initiatives really are and they wish to not promise the community anything they can’t in the end deliver. Not because they can’t but because they may have chosen not to. Not letting a customer base down is an important part of what you say about your company and its products.

On the other hand, SolidWorks may simply wish to keep its main competitors in the dark as much as possible. And every company deserves the right to its secrecy. We expect to hear from the company later today. We look forward to sharing what we learn.

Okay so the iPad is the name. I was hoping they would surprise us with something new and clever. Not! Clearly Jobs is a fully mature human being now, having gotten completely past Scully and the Newton MessagePad. So contrary to my earlier statement that he would distance the new device from the word “pad” Jobs’s new toy is in fact called the iPad. I have to admit it actually is better sounding than iSlate and iTablet…neither of which I cared much for.

The iPad – Details

The Apple iPad webpage just went live about 60 seconds ago. I’ve been reloading Apple.com for minutes now every 15 seconds. Hurray! It’s up. I have much to do today I’m going to make this blog post pretty short. The details that matter to us at Architosh are centered around this device’s raw power to handle large document images both in viewing capability and creation.

The A4

Apple is calling the new internally designed main processor (CPU) the A4. This is a PA Semi team produced chip, make no bones about it. This group has world-class expertise in high-performance/high-energy efficient chip design. That’s why Apple acquired them. That is why the US Government got hold of some of their first processors for military equipment–because they were that good.

Apple's PS Semi produced A4 processor in the new iPad. 1 Ghz chip may integrate graphics in a system-on-a-chip package. The A4 is likely based on a customization of an ARM processor design as Apple holds a special class license to ARM architectures which enables them to modify architectures.

The Apple A4 runs at 1-Ghz. It’s high-performance, lower-power system-on-a-chip custom silicon. We’ll have to dig around to find out who manufactured it and that will likely be easier to obtain than the internal architecture of the chip. That Apple will keep very close to their chest. We assume it is ARM architecture-based, but that’s not taking us all the way to where we really want to go.

Some of the details we now appear to know are flowing in across various sources on the Net. Engadget is claiming the A4 design is not just ARM architecture based, as we mentioned above, but based on the very latest Cortex A9 series multicore architecture. This chip was first discussed by ARM back in mid year 2009.

The ARM Cortex A9 can be up to a Quadcore multicore chip, as seen in this diagram. Credit: ARM.

Key to the Cortex A9 architecture is that like the Cortex A8 (which the iPhone processor is currently based around) the A9 is multicore. Additionally, it is built on a 45-nanometer processes compared to the 65-nanometer process of the A8. This reduction in chip size decreases power consumption while enabling the chip to speed up. Unlike Intel’s Atom chip, the ARM Cortex A9 sips power at about 300 milliwatts or less, while the Atom uses up to 2 watts. 2 watts is tiny in the world of chips coming from Intel, but not as tiny as what is needed in cell phones. That explains why the Atom is hot with Netbooks but not with Apple.

If Engadget is correct about the Apple A4 being Cortex A9 based the next question to ask is does the A4 have two cores or four? And if  the A4 is indeed Cortex A9 with a quad core why isn’t Apple bragging about that? Seems like it is right up their alley.

Could it be that the number “4″ in A4 stands for quadcore?

Graphics

In terms of graphics Apple is providing no information on the GPU. So we can only imagine what is inside powering that gorgeous LED backlit display, which supports 1024 x 768 resolution max. With that display size one can really bring up pretty big PDF files of CAD or 3D images. That’s much better than doing it on the iPhone–something I’ve done quite often but not like I’d like due to some performance and screen size limitations.

Now looking through the lens of the ARM Cortex A4 as the likely customized engine in Apple’s A4 processor we have learned a bit more. This C/Net article says the Cortex A4 can handle 1080p high-def video but Apple’s spec and iPad pages do not claim this. Video seems to be limited to 720p.

Given what we think we know details of the A4 chip may consist of this:

• 1 Ghz frequency custom designed Apple CPU (via PA Semiconductor team)
• ARM Cortex A9 Multicore Architecture
• Quadcore (hence A4 name) or dual core only
• 1-2 MB of L2 Cache
• Single and double precision scalar Floating-Point (FPU)
• NEON Media Processing Engine (not sure…)

Anyway, until we learn more… In the meantime please enjoy the iPad pages at Apple.

There are several key items announced in this news so read that full report here. 

The CAD Perspective

Despite the fact that in today’s Mac market there are more world-class, industry-leading CAD and 3D applications already running natively on the Mac OS X operating system than ever before doesn’t stop the quests by users and the demand on software makers to provide their Windows-only solutions to the growing Mac market. 

Autodesk’s recent announcements–since Macworld in January–portend to an evolving picture where “virtualization” is a stepping stone for software makers to deliver an interim solution to Mac users wishing to run Windows-only CAD and engineering applications.

The partnership between Parallels and Autodesk is a big blow to VMware; however there are several key Autodesk rivals which VMware could establish a working relationship in the same capacity. SolidWorks Corporation is one such major Autodesk rival, and SolidWorks is one such company that has users who would like to switch over to the Mac. 

There are interesting connections between user-bases on the Mac using native solutions and user bases on Windows-only platforms. One such connection is the partnership between solidThinking and SolidWorks. Many manufacturers have product designers using solidThinking on Macs and product engineering based around SolidWorks running out of necessity on Windows. There are overlaps with such organizations where a user on a Mac would like to be able to access files in both solidThinking and SolidWorks. 

VMware could search out such connections between major CAD and 3D design platforms and form partnerships much as Autodesk did with Parallels. By doing so it would fight off the perception that Parallels is a superior product for handling CAD applications.

What About Murphy’ Law

As usual when coming back from a busy show like the AIA my email inbox rains news press releases in several other industries. Architosh has much to cover in the next few days in order to catchup on several great news announcements, including items from general CAD software companies and even a good item from Filemaker. 

Our AIA news show reports will begin flowing in the next few days as well and go into the next two weeks with some special features from the show. I was fortunate to have many sit-downs at AIA and this caused me to miss out on visiting several smaller software vendors on the show floor. If I didn’t get around to you and your company my apologies. The time went by faster than I imagined. 

Highlights and Trends

The big buzzword at AIA this year was obviously sustainability. And that issue will likely dominate discussion for some time. There was a lot of focus on green design and building a future wherein the profession of architecture takes a leading role in regards to building a sustainable and eco-focused culture. Both Bentley and Graphisoft had announcements in the area of green design. And Autodesk’s booth was popular with sessions on its energy analysis tools. 

The AIA released new AIA documents that continue to march the profession forward towards BIM, which itself is a critical component of building an eco-focused profession. BIM is a necessity in the march towards a greener world with buildings not just because you can do full building simulations and analysis of energy much easier than in 2D tools, but because a large part of energy conservation comes after a building has been erected. With BIM a facilities manager or building owner can more fully monitor, maintain, and operate a building during its complete life-cycle. 

In regards to seeing buildings as objects with a life-cycle that often can outlast an architect’s own life, the emphasis on data produced by the architect is shifting from a world of solely communicating the requirements for construction to a world where you are obligated to communicate information useful to a building’s continued operation. This places the emphasis on 3D geometry so buildings can be “virtualized” for their continued maintenance. 

Because the industry is still wedded to the value of drawing and 2D methods of communication–both required within the creation and the life-cycle management of buildings–a challenge exist to both encourage and help architects move to a 3D world. Google’s SketchUp continues to draw attention to this issue by presenting to the industry a simplified way of learning and mastering 3D architectural and environment creation. However, hot on the tails of Google, legendary formZ software maker auto-des-sys, Inc., has released a rival to SketchUp called Bonzai 3D. Bonzai 3D is a significant milestone in the industry for several reasons.

Firstly, Bonzai 3D offers serious competition in the area of simplified 3D model creation. Competition is good because it keeps companies on their toes, moving the industry forward. Second,  Bonzai 3D offers the industry a direct scalable modeling path. You can start with a simple tool like Bonzai and take that data directly into an advanced NURBS-based modeler like formZ.  It should also be mentioned that Bonzai 3D is technically a NURBS modeler itself, enabling more sophisticated means to the same ends as SketchUp. Lastly, Bonzai 3D is compatible with SketchUp and numerous other 3D and CAD file formats, making it a solid choice for any production pipeline. 

We’ll have more news from AIA coming up!

An interesting note from a conference call question was that Oracle President Safra Catz said that Oracle believes it can run Sun at substantially higher margins. It is not clear exactly how Oracle could do that without cutting costs associated with Sun projects. 

Java is a critical middleware software for Oracle’s database software projects and now Oracle will own and control a major industry standard that effects all platforms, including Apple’s. And Ellison was quoted a saying Sun’s Solaris operating system is “by far the best Unix technology on the market.”

In years past Sun and Apple talked of mergers and when Apple was at its low point in the late 90’s Ellison may have played a role in encouraging the idea of the two hooking up. Larry Ellison is a best friend to Steve Jobs and the two share a common enemy in the tech industry up in Redmond. 

The idea that Sun and Apple could make strong bed mates (today) went something like this:

• Sun has great tech but bad marketing. Apple has great marketing and would be able to help solve this problem. 
• Sun has a strong enterprise sales and support team that can help Apple in the enterprise market.
• Mac OS X and Solaris could share some common tech benefitting both tremendously, especially some of Solaris in OS X. 
• Apple could push and utilize Sun’s storage in its media and video markets where Apple dominates.
• The brilliant sparc chip engineers could join up with the brilliant PA Semi chip team at Apple, and engineer even more wonderful micro-processors. This indeed is very compelling!!

But here are some other ideas that could be interesting for Sun. Earlier I wrote about Sun’s Virtualbox virtualization tool and the possibility of reviving its engineering workstation legacy vis-a-vis the use of Apple’s Mac Pro workstations. In this scenario Sun could work closely with Apple to leverage its new Grand Central and OpenCL technologies in the upcoming Snow Leopard OS, concentrating efforts on performance of OpenGL, OpenCL and native graphics support in the virtualization space. 

Additionally, Sun could foster an interest in running Solaris in its own Virtualbox as an industry Unix workstation platform, giving Mac Pro customers even more options. Sun could sell Virtualbox in the future preconfigured for a guest Solaris install and highly tuned and configured for engineering and science on the Mac Pro. 

What this does today is allow Oracle’s Sun to take a step backwards on the Sun workstation front and put the hardware part squarely in the hands of a good friend (Steve Jobs & Co.). At the same time, Apple could update both Boot Camp and work together with Oracle’s Sun to focus Virtualbox on becoming the strongest performing virtualization tool for engineering and CAD, thereby enabling thousands of engineers and scientists with deep history in Solaris-based workflows to continue along in this direction but with the added benefit and flexibility of Mac OS X behind them. This helps Solaris stay meaningful in the high-end science and engineering world.

Virtualbox + Solaris for Mac Pro would be one hot product if given the proper attention in this, albeit, dreamy scenario!!

Commentary: Do you like this idea? Shout back below, we’d love to hear from you on this.

The US AIA's ABI point to improvement in design/building sector of the economy.

Such an indication is made more notable by the continued index improvement in inquiries to architectural services which started to rise back in January from a low in December. The ABI’s results suggest that perhaps the down economy is reaching a bottom or floor (insofar as the building industry is concerned). To read the full report go here.

While we cannot divulge the particular developer in question, the major software company has a unique and particular relationship with Apple, one that goes back years and years. We can tell you this: we are not talking about Adobe. 

This note strongly suggested that the release of this new bit 64-bit based software is currently aiming at a June time-frame, timed to coincide with Apple’s worldwide developers conference (WWDC 2009). Apple’s conference is slated for June 8-12, 2009. 

Snow Leopard, New UI and Beating Windows 7

Interestingly, this news come at a time when AppleInsider just reported that Apple is close to unveiling its guarded Snow Leopard user interface overhaul. Jobs originally told WWDC attendees and the press that Apple was just focusing on non-UI based improvements for Snow Leopard, but the company has been secretly working on a brand new UI since the beginning.

Apple is apparently very close to preparing this new UI for broader consumption now, and a two-month window is probably an unnecessary amount of time to prep for WWDC for just the UI–especially given that the company has reportedly been working on the new user interface improvements from the very beginning of this release cycle.

With a major developer hoping and thinking they can release their Snow Leopard-based product in the June time-frame, and Apple apparently ready to go with a new UI, it seems reasonable that perhaps Apple will have Snow Leopard on store shelves within days of WWDC. If so the company will have all summer to drum up excitement and press coverage on Snow Leopard before Microsoft releases Windows 7 in perhaps as early as this Fall.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of magazines and books I can physically hold. But is it even “green” and socially responsible anymore to be cheering for the continuation of “tree-based media” when there are more appropriate and more interconnected options available for us all on the Net?

This may be one of those situations where the new owner has long term plans to exit a printed version of Cadalyst but in the meantime needs to keep printing it for financial reasons. I for one hope that there is a long-term Net-only strategy being developed, as Cadalyst is still a very enjoyable read for me, especially in the areas of product reviews and in-depth articles. And Nancy Johnson may get her chance to put all the pieces back together again, but if she fails and the print version ceases to exist, should we cry about it? I am not so sure we should.

Apple officially unveiled the next version of the OS X operating system in the iPhone. Dubbed iPhone OS 3.0, this next version brings copy and paste, cut, MMS and so much more. In fact there are 100 new features in the OS plus several fascinating new possibilities for app developers. 

Perhaps one of the coolest new features for developers will be the ability to make in-app purchases for new features and content. These will work like subscriptions and will be ideal for things like additional game levels and new content. Also a nifty new feature will be the peer to peer ad-hoc iPhone networks using Bluetooth. 

No. 2 – Hidden iPhone OS 3 Features Will Push Business Forward

This PCWorld story talks about key new features that will propel the iPhone further into corporate America. Specifically…over 1000 new API (application programming interfaces) will be available in iPhone OS 3.0. This is huge not jut because of the sheer size of the many new APIs but because of how many new ones pertain to corporate enterprise computing. 

Key new items include Exchange Server, CalDAV and .ics subscriptions added to the Calendar application, LDAP, EAS and better group calendaring functionality. 

And this article talks about all the buzz going on regarding the new OS APIs. Also a good related read. 

No. 3 – How to Make a Cool $1.5 Million with an iPhone App

Fortune also got a hold of a story on the decision by Pangea Software to drop Mac game development to focus exclusively on the iPhone. Pangea’s quick path to so much money ($1.5 million+) with one hit iPhone game has forced the company to reconsider how they plan development for the Mac. It looks like the company will stop producing Mac games in the short term to focus exclusively on the iPhone and iPod Touch platform.

No. 4 – Apple Holding Back on Web 3D?

This post at Ars Technica is interesting as it pertains to Apple’s Safari web browser and the future of desktop browsing. Specifically Apple may indeed by holding back on the desktop by not allowing the use of “3D position and transform” and other 2D-based CSS-based transform abilities currently live on Safari mobile. 

These transforms (CSS transforms) added to the WebKit are interesting and provide useful UI effects on the iPhone. We suspect that they will emerge in Safari for the desktop at some point. To read the details go here.

No. 5 – Architosh Readers Group at LinkedIn

Our own news about our architosh Readers Group at LinkedIn.com forms our fifth most important news for us. Yes, we think this is important as it portends to future trends online wherein social media networks begin to fuse with media outlets and their common members. To some media outlets it may not seem wise to send readers to a social network, but we beg to differ and see possibilities and values that are currently transparent.

According to a report by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, 74 percent of companies plan to expand Mac use within their companies. 314 companies took the survey and only 2 percent said they would be decreasing the use of Macs within their companies. The survey cited both productivity gains and employee preference as the main reasons enterprises are adopting more Macs within their organizations. Lower cost of ownership is also playing an important role. Of the IT managers in the survey nearly 60 percent are managing more than 100 Macs within a wide range of enterprise-class companies. To read the full report go here.

No. 2 – Apple to preview iPhone OS X 3.0 at Town Hall Event

Apple invited press to a special Town Hall style event to take an early look at the iPhone 3.0 firmware update. Apple intends to show the IT press that the company plans to stay on the bleeding edge of mobile operating system software and not fall behind its key rivals such as the new Palm-pre with its advanced Web-OS. 

No. 3 – Apple Set to Introduce Netbook-like Device this Summar/Fall

Taiwanese touch panel maker claims working order for Apple. Wintek, according to this post on Forbes, is set to supply touch panels for an yet-to-be-named Apple device. This maybe the long-awaited and anticipated Mac touch Architosh has written about in the past (see images). 

Apple is not the same position as its OEM computer-maker competition. The company’s regular-sized laptops continue to be hot sellers, meaning the company is not under pressure to deliver and compete in the low-cost Netbook market. This means Apple will likely wait to deliver something that changes the overall game for a device that is touch-based and fits between its popular iPhone and iPod touch devices and its wildly popular Mac mobile lineup. This future device may also be powered by a chip from Apple’s PA Semi division. 

No. 4 – Apple’s App Store Now at 25,000 Applications and Growing

Apple’s App Store is now at 25,000 applications and still growing. A report on AppleInsider says the store is nearing a pace of $1 billion in annual revenue. Apple has accomplished with the App Store in just nine months what Microsoft has taken nine years to accomplish. 

“The iPhone App Store has redefined the smartphone industry,” said Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf. “In a game of ‘follow the leader’, most operating system platforms, including Android, Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian, announced they were opening similar online stores.”

No. 5 – Snow Leopard to launch June 8

Infoworld.com has a report claiming that Apple’s next operating system, Snow Leopard, will be rolled out June 8 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which takes place June 6-12, 2009. 

Is Snow Leopard Apple’s Secret Business Weapon? (see Infoworld report).

Apple has not published the schedule for WWDC 2009 yet. However, reports are coming out of information listed at the Moscone Center.

Intel has published a special interview on Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Dreamworks talking about their upcoming 3D movie plans. There is also a discussion about the benefits of the new ColorCode Paper 3D glasses.